The Travel Habits of Brazilians: U.S. Tops As Most Popular

Brazil is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism market, and millions of the newly emerging middle class are keen to travel the world. Despite recent economic uncertainty in the country, Brazil is expected to be the fifth largest economy by 2025, and established destinations have been busy developing strategies to lure high-spending Brazilian tourists.

The Canadian travel market is one such destination, and the Canadian Tourism Commission recently came out with a report on the travel habits of Brazilians, focusing on how it stacks up against competitors like United States, and other European and Latin American countries. The report surveyed 1,529 respondents in Brazil, about their travel habits.

Some of the key takeaways from the survey:

• Slightly less than half of survey participants had actually taken a long-haul trip in the past 3 years, with the remaining 53% aspiring to travel long-haul in the next 2 years.
• Brazilians are optimistic about future long-haul travel with 66% believing they will travel more in the coming 2-3 years than they have in the recent past.
• 65% of current outbound travel is long-haul (4.9 million trips in 2011). The US is by far the most popular destination, attracting 1.5 million Brazilian travelers annually. The survey results show 39% of all most recent trips were to the US. This trend is expected to continue with the US topping the list.
• There is also considerable interest in European destinations, particularly Italy and France, likely due to historical ties and the perception that these destinations best deliver the tourism experiences Brazilians are seeking.
• Brazil is a price sensitive market and recent currency devaluations have made affordability is a major consideration for Brazilian travelers
• Travel agents play a pivotal role in the Brazilian market, with almost three-quarters of respondents seeking an agent’s input and one half actually booking a recent trip this way.

This chart below illustrates how Brazilians associate different countries with different interests they have in mind.